Anode body for solid electrolytic capacitor and solid electrolytic capacitor using the same
A solid electrolytic capacitor having a lowered leakage current characteristic and an improved ESR characteristic; which has been implemented by decreasing the defects contained in the dielectric film of the anode body. It includes a valve metal foil which makes anode and a sintered layer provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the valve metal foil, which sintered layer covering the entire surface of side faces of valve metal foil in three directions with exception of the anode lead portion. A flat plane area of valve metal foil, which makes anode, covered with sintered layer is not less than one half of the flat plane area of sintered layer.
Latest Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Patents:
- Cathode active material for a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery and manufacturing method thereof, and a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery that uses cathode active material
- Optimizing media player memory during rendering
- Navigating media content by groups
- Optimizing media player memory during rendering
- Information process apparatus and method, program, and record medium
The present invention relates to an anode body for solid electrolytic capacitor used in various kinds of electronic apparatus, and a solid electrolytic capacitor using the anode body.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONAnode lead wire 16 of each capacitor element 14 is connected to external anode terminal 21A. Cathode layer 19 is connected to external cathode terminal 21B. Respective anode leads 16 are connected together with electrical connection member 20. Finally, the entire structure of laminated capacitor elements 14 is covered with insulating resin 22 to make a finished capacitor.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No.2000-306782 discloses a method of providing a thin anode body 15. In the first place, sintered layer 24 is formed on the upper and lower surfaces of valve metal foil 23 which makes anode, as shown in
As the result, as shown in
A solid electrolytic capacitor having an anode body for solid electrolytic capacitor, which anode body includes a valve metal foil which makes anode and a layer of sintered body of valve metal provided on the upper and the lower surfaces, respectively, of the valve metal foil, and the sintered layers of valve metal formed on both the upper and the lower surfaces of valve metal foil cover the entire side faces in three directions with exception of anode lead portion of valve metal foil.
A solid electrolytic capacitor having an anode body for solid electrolytic capacitor, which anode body includes a valve metal foil which makes anode and a layer of sintered body of valve metal provided to cover the valve metal foil with exception of anode lead portion, and a flat plane area of the above-described valve metal foil covered with the sintered layer is not less than one half that the flat plane area of sintered layer.
A solid electrolytic capacitor (SEC) in exemplary embodiments of the present invention is described referring to the drawings. The drawings have been prepared for the purpose of presenting the concepts, they are not aimed to exhibit precise relative location or dimensions.
(Embodiment 1)
The valve metal foil and the valve metal powder in the present embodiment use tantalum.
A method of manufacturing the above-configured anode body 1 for SEC is described below, and a capacitor element 4 using the anode body as well.
Valve metal foil 2 is stamped out to a certain specific element shape; one end of the stamped out piece forming anode lead portion 2A. It is covered with a paste of tantalum powder and binder, excluding anode lead portion 2A. After removing the binder, it is sintered in vacuum to form sintered layer 3. Thus anode body 1 for SEC is manufactured. And then, anode body 1 is anode-oxidized in phosphoric acid solution to provide dielectric film 5 on the surface of valve metal foil 2 and sintered layer 3. Further on the surface of dielectric film 5, solid electrolytic layer 6 is provided through either one of the following methods. One method is dipping anode body 1 in manganese nitrate solution and pull it out of the solution for thermal decomposition to form solid electrolytic layer 6 of manganese dioxide. The other method is polymerizing pyrrole monomer or the like conductive polymer material by a known process, to provide solid electrolytic layer 6 of polypyrrole, etc. On the surface of solid electrolytic layer 6 thus provided, a carbon layer and a silver paste layer are laminated in the order to form cathode layer 7. Capacitor element 4 is manufactured through the above-described procedure. Finally, anode lead portion 2A and cathode layer 7 of capacitor element 4 are connected respectively with an external anode terminal and an external cathode terminal. The entire structure of SEC element 4 is covered with an insulating resin to complete a finished SEC.
(Embodiment 2)
Now in the present embodiment 2, a structure where a plurality of capacitor elements 4 of embodiment 1 is stacked together is described. Those parts identical to those of embodiment 1 are represented by the same symbols, and detailed description on which parts is eliminated. Only those different parts are described referring to the drawings.
Referring to
(Embodiment 3)
A method of manufacturing anode body 11 for SEC formed of porous tantalum is described, referring to
Leakage current characteristic of a SEC in accordance with the present embodiment 3 is shown in
The same advantage can be realized by forming sintered layer 3 of tantalum metal powder to cover the upper and the lower surfaces of cathode forming portion 11B of anode body 11, in the same manner as in embodiment 1.
It is not the intention of the present invention to limit the porous valve metal to tantalum.
(Embodiment 4)
The present embodiment is described with focus on those points of difference from embodiment 1.
As shown in
In the above configuration, it satisfies at least one of the following requirements; that a flat plane area of valve metal foil 102 covered by sintered layer 103 is not less than one half of the flat plane area of sintered layer 103, and that a cross sectional area of anode lead portion 102A is not less than 10% of the cross sectional area of sintered layer 103. A SEC is manufactured, in the same manner as in embodiment 1, using this anode body 101 for solid electrolytic capacitor.
SEC thus manufactured is compared in terms of the ESR characteristic. The SEC in embodiment 1 has the structure where the flat plane area of valve metal foil 2 covered by sintered layer 3 is not less than one half of the flat plane area of sintered layer 3, and the cross sectional area of anode lead portion 2A of valve metal foil 2 is 10% of the cross sectional area of sintered layer 3. The SEC in embodiment 2 has the structure where the cross sectional area of anode lead portion 2A of valve metal foil 2 has been increased to a ratio of 30% to that of sintered layer 3. The conventional SEC has the structure where it includes a porous sintered body of valve metal powder mold, containing an anode lead wire buried therein so that one end of the wire protrudes out. These SECs were compared with respect to the ESR characteristic, the results of comparison are shown in (Table 1).
As it is clear from (Table 1), it is preferred that at least either one of the following requirements is satisfied; that a flat plane area of valve metal foil 102 covered by sintered layer 103 is not less than one half of the flat plane area of sintered layer 103, and that a cross sectional area of anode lead portion 102A is not less than 10% of the cross sectional area of sintered layer 103. By so doing, the junction of valve meal foil 102 making anode and sintered layer 103 is ensured. Furthermore, since the contact area of valve metal foil 102 in anode lead portion 102A and sintered layer 103 is increased, a SEC is provided with lowered ESR and improved high frequency response. In addition, if cross sectional area of anode lead portion 2A is further increased, as in embodiment 2, ESR can be lowered a step further. Consequently, the high frequency response is further improved.
Although the valve metal foil and valve metal in the present embodiment 4 use tantalum, it is not the intention of the present invention to limit the material to tantalum. Other valve metal selected from among the group of tantalum, niobium and a tantalum-niobium alloy provides the same functions and effects. Or, a combination of the above may be used.
(Embodiment 5)
Reference is made to
The flat plane area, and the cross sectional area, of anode lead portion 112A of valve metal foil 112, which makes the above-described anode body 111, have at least the same square measure as the corresponding areas of valve metal foil 112 covered with sintered layer 113. Namely, it is shaped so that area of anode lead portion 112A of valve metal foil 112 extruding from sintered layer 113 does not decrease.
With the anode body thus shaped, the ESR of a SEC can be lowered since there is no decrease in the area of anode lead portion 112A.
As described in the above, an anode body for SEC in accordance with the present invention, as well as a SEC containing the anode body, have no smooth surface in the dielectric film provided on the end face of anode body. As a result, dielectric film becomes stable in the shape, and solid electrolytic layer formed on the dielectric film ensures an improved leakage current characteristic with a finished SEC.
Furthermore, the above-described configuration is satisfying at least one of the following requirements; that a flat plane area of valve metal foil covered by sintered layer is not less than one half of the flat plane area of sintered layer, and that a cross sectional area of anode lead portion is not less than 10% of the cross sectional area of sintered layer.
As a result, the junction of valve metal foil making anode and sintered layer can be ensured. Furthermore, since the contact area of valve metal foil in the anode lead portion and sintered layer has been increased, a finished SEC provides a lowered ESR and a superior high frequency response.
Claims
1. An anode body for a solid electrolytic capacitor comprising
- a valve metal foil which makes an anode, and
- a layer of sintered body formed of said valve metal covering said valve metal foil with exception of an anode lead portion, wherein
- a ratio of cross sectional area of said anode lead portion of said valve metal foil to that of the layer of sintered body is not less than 10%.
Type: Grant
Filed: Jul 16, 2003
Date of Patent: Jan 10, 2006
Patent Publication Number: 20040136144
Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Osaka)
Inventors: Kiyoshi Hirota (Osaka), Koichi Kojima (Osaka)
Primary Examiner: Eric W. Thomas
Attorney: RatnerPrestia
Application Number: 10/621,064
International Classification: H01G 9/04 (20060101); H01G 5/013 (20060101);